Bouvet-Ladubay: Growers
One unusual feature of this profile of Bouvet-Ladubay, compared to all my other Loire profiles, is that despite presenting more than 150 years of history I have not once mentioned the acquisition, expansion, planting or replanting of a vineyard.
The reason for this is simple: there are no vineyards to discuss with Bouvet-Ladubay, as the firm owns none. Instead they work with innumerable local growers, over 120 in total, who produce grapes with the guidance of Bouvet-Ladubay oenologists, who also manage the harvest and pressing on site, before they then deliver the fresh must to the Bouvet-Ladubay facilities, ready for fermentation and the subsequent processes necessary for the creation of sparkling wines. The grape varieties on which Bouvet-Ladubay focus are naturally Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc, and the soils are generally the very typical limestone and clay mix which dominates the Saumur region.
Other than that, there is very little to say about the vineyards!
With such a huge operation it is perhaps not surprising to learn of the extent of the Bouvet-Ladubay facilities in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent, a high-tech winery of considerable expanse, to which for many years the growers would deliver their must. Having visited the facilities I imagined, having taken in the scale of the operation, and having walked and even cycled through some of the many kilometres of limestone cellars, that this was the whole of it.
I was wrong, however, as the fresh investment in 2008 permitted the construction of new facilities (pictured below), costing €12.5 million, in Distré, a few kilometres to the south of Saumur. These are, by any scale, industrial, as can be seen when driving past the facility, which sits alongside the D347 as it heads south towards Montreuil-Bellay. Although the spirit of Etienne Bouvet lives on in the riverside cellars and tasting rooms in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent, the truth is today much of the winemaking takes place in this new facility.
Here, an impressive array of wines is produced, the cuvées so numerous that the entire range defies full exploration. Rather than trying to detail the story behind every wine, below I detail the half-dozen or so most significant wines.
